Wednesday, August 31, 2016

One thing we need to remember in facing problems in our
lives or others is God’s timing. God is big enough to deal with our problems.
But He does not always do it in the way and with the timing we prefer. Take the
example of David. God had chosen him to be anointed king over Israel. David
then faced a giant, and the giant went down. But afterwards, he spent many
years running from King Saul, who was trying to kill him. God kept His promise,
and eventually David became king. But he had to get there the long way around.
God never lacks the power necessary to handle the giants. But He also does not
do it on our time schedule.

God is in total control of the events in our life, and if we
are those who have put our faith in Christ, He works them for our good (Romans
8:28; Ephesians 1:11; Isaiah 43:13). But He tells us we will face problems in
this life (Acts 14:22; John 16:33; 1 Peter 4:12,13). Therefore, God does not
promise He will remove all problems from our life. Rather, He says He will use
them to make us better servants of His (James 1:2-4; 2 Corinthians 4:17,18;
12:7-10). But this is often frustrating from our perspective. We want help, and
we want help now, from the things that plague us. We know that God has the
power to help, but He does not. At least not immediately. And even though we
realize God has a bigger plan, we can struggle.

There are things we can remember that will help put this in
perspective. We should remember that God has saved us through the work of
Christ (Romans 5:6-8; John 3:14-18; 1 John 4:9,10) and that He offers that
salvation freely to all who put their faith in Him (Romans 4:4,5; Ephesians
2:8,9; Philippians 3:9). Also, He has promised that, if we have put our faith
in Christ, we will one day dwell forever with Him and all suffering will be
done away with (Romans 8:18-23; Revelation 21:3,4; 1 Corinthians 15:53-57). If
we remember these things, it will remind us that God loves us, and it will put
our present sufferings in perspective. Also, we should remember that God
Himself became a Man and went through suffering to redeem us (Hebrews 2:9-18;
Philippians 2:5-11; Isaiah 53:4-9). God is not looking down from the safety of
heaven, telling us it is necessary for us to suffer. He has come down Himself
and gone through suffering and understands what we are going through. So while
we may have to suffer and we may not understand why God does not immediately
deliver us, we need to trust Him to bring us through (Proverbs 3:5,6; Psalms
37:3-6; 46:10). And we need to remember the big picture of who God is and what
He has done for us.

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Sometimes it is easy in living for
Christ to miss the nitty-gritty things that are involved in doing this on a
day-to-day basis. Now I do not want in any way to deny that our salvation is by
grace (Ephesians 2;8,9; Romans 4:4,5; Titus 3:5,6). Nor do I want to minimize
the fact that it is only by the power of God working in us we can live for Him
(2 Corinthians 3:18; Philippians 2:13; Colossians 1:29). But Scripture does say
that growth in godliness is a process that requires practice and effort (1
Timothy 4:7.8; Philippians 3:13,14; Hebrews 5:14). In this process, integrity
is one of the basic qualities we need to acquire. It is also one that is hard
to maintain. And it is easy (at least for me) to fall into the error of the
Pharisees, splitting hairs to try to cover my tracks.

First, we need to refrain from lying
(Proverbs 6:16-19; John 8:44; Ephesians 4:25). This particularly refers to
slander, telling false things about others (Exodus 20:16; Proverbs 10:18; 1
Peter 2:1). The problem is that it is often easy to rationalize this if we let
ourselves. We particularly need to keep the promises we have made (Psalms 15:4;
Matthew 5:33-37; 23:16-22). But it is easy, like the Pharisees, to come up with
a system of which promises really count. And we as a society tend to take our
oaths lightly, whether wedding vows or other types of agreements. We have a
whole legal system based around the technicality, and it is easy to fall into
that kind of thinking. We also should not say things that tear down another
person, even if they are true (Ephesians 4:29-31; Colossians 3:8; James
3:2-12), particularly behind their back (Leviticus 19:16; Proverbs 11:13;
26:20-22). Now there is a place for correcting those in sin, but it should be
to their face, with a proper attitude (Matthew 18:15-17; Galatians 6:1; Hebrews
12:12,13). But it is easy to come up with excuses: I was just concerned, or I
was sharing a prayer request. Perhaps the hardest area can be the area of
money. We live in a culture where the love of money is a fundamental motivator
(1 Timothy 6:10; Matthew 6:19-20; 19:16-22). Easy credit and other questionable
practices do not help here. Also, a part of our character is our choice of
companions (Psalms 1:1; 1 Corinthians 15:33; Proverbs 13:20). Now there is a
place to reach out to people to win them to Christ (Matthew 9:11-13; Luke
19:10; 1 Corinthians 9:19-23). But we need to be careful we are pulling them up
and they are not pulling us down. It can often be difficult to know how to
maintain our integrity in this midst of the real world’s dilemmas. To do this
we must decide to follow Christ (Romans 12:1,2; Titus 2:11-14; Ephesians 2:10),
and we must trust in His power (Proverbs 3:5,6; Psalms 127:1,2; Galatians
5:16).